Thread: New Job!!!

Yes the owner is putting stone on a hillside to stop erosion so we piled it up for him. The excavator is nice and one day I will own one since this one is a rental. It was a little big for digging the base as I couldn't maneuver it in where I need to but it was nice having that big of machine when removing all the dirt and the two stumps we had to pull out. We will be finally to the point of building the wall tomorrow. We got all the base dug out today so in the morning we will start putting the compaction material down. I am really excited to see it when we are done. It is going to be a nice looking wall and they are gaining a lot of parking space as well.Posted via Mobile Device

Here are the pics of the job completed. It turned out awesome! I am happy with it and more importantly the customer is extremely happy! I do wish I would have put a few more lights on it. I had never done lighting before so I did not know how far to space things. It is lighted up well and the lights under the caps are really sweet. I am going to go one night and take some more pics of it then. The job took us two weeks but we just finished it yesterday because we waited three weeks for our lights to come in when they were supposed to be here weeks ago.

I'm not really sure what you want us to say. Umm....how bout "The newly completed wall looks nice"?

You had mentioned that you were going to skirt your way around having the wall engineered.

Some commentors had recommended that if you insist on skirting the engineering - then at least install grid. But as I examine the photos, I don't see any grid popping through the face of the wall. Which yes, we do trim the visible strands of grid, hopefully that's what you did.

I have an OLD buddy that is in the asphalt paving business. He told me years ago "a driveway is only as good as what's underneath it". Same can be said about retaining walls and interlocking pavements.

So, in the pictures I see a tall wall with an enormous amount of weight behind it with block that relies on grid.

Pictures are nice from time to time.

But what really matters is whether or not you used any grid. And did you install the grid correctly?

As far as I'm concerned - if there is no grid, and it wasnt installed correctly - then the photos are better suited for Facebook.

Hopefully I'm dead wrong and you can shove my words back in my face.

Also, a majority of the slope behind the wall is sloping to the wall. Water is a wall's enemy. There needs to be a swail on the slope to direct water away from and around the wall.

__________________"It's You vs. You"

"People Throw Rocks At Things That Shine"

My Equipment Brag List:

-1 CAT hat
-16 pairs of Hanes socks (the Heavy Duty model), many with holes.
-12 pairs of underwear, ranging from Joe Boxers to Jockey, many are in need of replacement. (no more photo requests please)
-hundreds of t-shirts. Some w/ grease stains, some torn & tattered.
-7 pairs of jeans, ranging from Levis to Polo to GAP. 1/2 of them have holes in 'em.
-1 belt
-1 pair of old worn out Nike shoes.

You know where he screwed up? The base isn't wide enough. How do I know? You can see where he did the pavement patch. He should have base 12" in front of the block and 12" behind. It looks like the asphalt patch is about 2 or 3".

Wall has two layers of grid. One at 3' and one at 5' on everything that is over three foot tall. How ever tall the wall is is how far the grid goes back. Say the wall is 5.5 ft the grid went back 5.5 ft. The base is 14" of compacted material which it was only speced for 12". I am not asking for any advise or anything I just figured I would show a finished look since I had posted before pics. There is also a drain tile running the entire length of the wall as well as 2' of washed stone directly behind the wall to help with drainage. The grading isn't competed because we have had rain and plus there are areas that are going to settle behind the wall from digging up water lines and such. The finish grading will be done as soon as it dries up enough to complete. I do not really know why I even bothered posting as all you guys can do is bash people's work. I built the wall to spec and if anything a little better than spec. You guys can pick it apart all you want and the pics are a little deceiving as to size and distances as well but I know I built a top notch wall and I know I built it to last a lifetime. I have not one concern of anything going wrong with this wall.Posted via Mobile Device

Wall has two layers of grid. One at 3' and one at 5' on everything that is over three foot tall. How ever tall the wall is is how far the grid goes back. Say the wall is 5.5 ft the grid went back 5.5 ft. The base is 14" of compacted material which it was only speced for 12". I am not asking for any advise or anything I just figured I would show a finished look since I had posted before pics. There is also a drain tile running the entire length of the wall as well as 2' of washed stone directly behind the wall to help with drainage. The grading isn't competed because we have had rain and plus there are areas that are going to settle behind the wall from digging up water lines and such. The finish grading will be done as soon as it dries up enough to complete. I do not really know why I even bothered posting as all you guys can do is bash people's work. I built the wall to spec and if anything a little better than spec. You guys can pick it apart all you want and the pics are a little deceiving as to size and distances as well but I know I built a top notch wall and I know I built it to last a lifetime. I have not one concern of anything going wrong with this wall.Posted via Mobile Device

Look brother I'm only responding to what you have written. So you got us before pics. And after. But no during? I don't believe you used grid.

You didn't "Build the wall to spec" as you claim. Whos "spec"? the man on the moon? Because I have NEVER seen grid speced to be used at THREE FEET HIGH!! For a wall with that surcharge there is normally grid utilized at the base course. And then at two feet. So in other words when the wall is 2' high it should have 2 layers if grid in the ground. And another at 4'. And probably another at 5'4. Four layers total.

And Rusk-a-Roni wasn't talking about the thickness of the aggregate base. He was referring to the width. The footings for such walls are typically 2' wide with the block placed in the center.

This is a Hardscape forum. We all build walls day in and day out. We see them in our sleep. You posted pics because this is your first wall you did on your own and you're proud of it Posted via Mobile Device

Well i think it looks good. The details of engineering are best left to the wall gurus above. I've only done 3 that were small enough to not need engineering and I happen to still enjoy pics.Posted via Mobile Device